Global engagement with music listening increasing according to a new report from IFPI, the organisation that represents the recorded music industry worldwide. The Music Listening 2019 report has been published in previous years under its former title IFPI Music Consumer Insight Report. It examines the ways in which music consumers aged 16 – 64 engage with recorded music across 21 countries.
Report highlights
- Music listening is up. Respondents typically spend 18 hours per week listening to music – up from 17.8 hours in 2018. This equates to about 2.6 hours – or the equivalent of listening to 52 three-minute songs – daily.
- Most people (54%) identify as ‘loving’ or being ‘fanatical’ about music. Among 16 – 24-year-olds, this rises to 63%.
- Older age groups increasingly embrace audio streaming services. Engagement with audio streaming globally is strong, with 64% of all respondents accessing a music streaming service in the past month – up by about 7% over 2018. The highest rate of growth for engagement is in the 35 – 64-year-old age group, with 54% of that group accessing a music streaming service in the past month (+8% on 2018).
- Copyright infringement remains a challenge for the music ecosystem. 27% of all those surveyed used unlicensed methods to listen to or obtain music in the past month, while 23% used illegal stream ripping services – the leading form of music piracy.
Frances Moore, Chief Executive of IFPI, said: “This year’s report tells an exciting story of how fans are increasingly engaging with music. At a time when multiple forms of media vie for fans’ attention, they are not only choosing to spend more of their time listening to – and engaging with – music but they are doing so in increasingly diverse ways.”
“The enduring partnership between record companies and artists is the bedrock on which this growing, exciting global world of passionate music listeners is built. Record companies work with their artists to help connect them with fans around the world.”
“The report also highlights that the availability of music through unlicensed methods, or copyright infringement, remains a real threat to the music ecosystem. Practices such as stream ripping are still prevalent and return nothing to those who create and invest in music. We continue to coordinate world-wide action to address this.”
Report Methodology
IFPI conducted global research in April-May 2019 which explored the way consumers engage with and access music across licensed and unlicensed services. Fieldworkers questioned a demographically representative sample (34,000 individuals) of the online population aged 16-64 in the following territories: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. The study was also conducted in China and India but results from these two countries are not included in ‘global’ figures. These twenty-one territories accounted for 92.6% of global recorded music market revenues in 2018, according to IFPI’s Global Music Report 2019.
The full report which is freely available can be download here.
